Leaving It All Behind [Formerly Help Wanted]

Help Wanted [Chapter Eleven]

Recap:

"Sam, I think I need to explain a few things to you," I said quietly, gauging his reaction.

"What?" he asked apprehensively. I have to admit, him not freaking out was making me feel a little better about choosing to tell him.

"I want to tell you about why I'm here. Why I ran away, and coincidentally, met you."

........

"What are you talking about? I thought you were a runaway," he said slowly, looking at me cautiously.

"I am a runaway, but there's a pretty big reason why I had to leave," I said, taking deep breaths to keep myself from crying.

He scooted closer to me, wrapping me in a big hug. "Al, you don't have to explain anything to me," he whispered softly in my ear.

"But I have to Sam, I can't hold it in anymore," I mumbled, clutching onto him for support.

"Okay then, why did you run away?" he asked gently, rubbing soothing circles on my back.

"I had to. They thought I had killed someone Sam, they weren't gonna let me go," I said, my voice trembling.

"Al, who thought you killed someone?"

"Everyone did. My parents, the police, Parker's parents, all my friends, they all thought I was a murderer. I had no choice but to leave," I said, fresh tears beginning to cloud my vision.

"Why don't you just start from the beginning? It's always easier to understand when you start from the beginning," he said softly, squeezing me tighter to him.

I nodded, knowing that everything I had told him so far had probably made no sense. "I lived in Arizona with my parents before I came here. I had a good life, and I thought I had the perfect boyfriend. We were in love, the kind you would read about in a book or see in a movie," I said, the salty tears making their way down my cheeks and soaking into the fabric of Sam's shirt. "But then, I went to his house one night to surprise him, and he came home drunk... with another girl. At first I didn't know what to do, so I hid in his closet, hoping that I was just dreaming the whole thing and would wake up. But I never did."

My shoulders had started to shake, but Sam just held me, waiting for the rest of my story.

"I ended up waiting almost all night in there, being forced to listen to the entire thing until I heard the other girl leave."

"Why didn't you just leave Al?" Sam asked, shaking his head at how stupid he must have thought I was.

"I couldn't move, I didn't want it to be true," I choked out, sobs shaking my entire body as he held me.

"What happened next?" he asked softly, running a hand through my hair comfortingly.

"I opened the door when it got quiet knowing that he had fallen asleep and left. I didn't look at the bed. I just ran."

"Al... I'm so sorry. I understand why you were upset before, and I swear I never meant for you to get hurt because of me. I should have remembered you were coming. I feel so stupid and shallow," he said, withdrawing his hand to smack himself in the forehead.

I leaned back, grabbing his wrist before he could hit himself again. "Sam, you don't need to lose anymore brain cells," I teased, smiling weakly.

"You're lucky I still want to hear the rest of your story, or I would make you take that back," he joked, laughing lightly. "Now, I think you need to finish explaining because that doesn't sound like people thinking you killed someone, he said with a small frown.

"Well, the police called me the next day, wanting me and my parents to come into the station to talk about something. I had no idea what they were talking about so I agreed. Parker's parents were there and his mom tried to attack me when I walked in, screaming at me about Parker and how I killed him. I had no idea what she was talking about, but the police held her back and led us into a different room," I explained, taking steadying breaths to calm my erratic heart beat. "They told us about how Parker's parents had found him dead in his room that morning and some of his neighbors had spotted me leaving the night before," I whispered. "My parents left then, thinking that I had done it too."

"But you couldn't have killed him. You're just not that kind of person," he said firmly, as if his words alone could make it all go away.

"I know I didn't Sam, but they had people that saw me leaving. They knew about the other girl being there and thought I had killed Parker out of anger. I tried to tell them that it wasn't me, but they just kept saying that I had done it or I had to have seen whoever did, but I swore I hadn't. They just wouldn't believe me. They had to let me go because I wasn't actually under arrest, but they said not to leave town."

"So basically they were trying to arrest you before they even had the evidence. Why the hell didn't your lawyer speak up?" Sam asked, sounding slightly insane with how angry I knew he was.

"My parents thought I had done it too. They wouldn't have paid for one if I had asked, they thought I deserved to be locked away for 'what I had done'," I scoffed.

"So you left anyways?" he asked, smiling slightly to get off topic from my parents.

"Yeah, I climbed out my window with a big bag and a lot of my parent's money that night and never looked back. I didn't have a car, and I couldn't drive, but I could still walk. I walked around, stole a bike from some house a few blocks away and rode all the way to the old train station."

"You know that wasn't smart, the police could have tracked you on video," he said, looking at me like I was crazy.

"I said the old train station. I hopped one of the old cars with the doors that open on the side and hitched a ride as far east as it went. That's basically what I did until I got here. I did hitch hike a couple of times on some busy roads though," I remembered, laughing quietly at the memory of an old woman who had been sweet enough to give me some fresh baked bread that she just happened to have in her purse at the time.

"Well then I'd say you're lucky to have gotten here alive," he said, pulling me in for another tight hug.

"I guess," I said thoughtfully. "I have to say, it did toughen me up though. I learned to take care of myself and I met you," I added with a smile.

"What was your birth name?" he asked suddenly. "I mean, I know that you had already changed your name once or twice before I met you, but you've never told me that."

"Jessica, Jessica Harrington," I whispered. I had never told anyone my real name since I had left home. I had never wanted to before now.

He pulled back and studied my face closely. "Nope. I don't see a Jessica. You're still Al to me," he said with a smile.

"Why Al?" I asked. "I've had plenty of other names to choose from, but why do you like Al out of all of them?"

"I don't know, I guess you just look more like an Al to me than any of those other names," he said shrugging. "Now can we please watch the movie?" he begged, making me laugh.

Only Sam could hear such life changing news as me being accused of murder one minute and be focused on watching a movie the next.

"Sure, but we're gonna have to rewind it," I said, still laughing at his short attention span.

"Well of course," he said, grabbing the remote. "We've only missed about half of it," he said with a grin.

"You do it then," I said with a smile, leaning back into him and watching all the scenes replaying backwards as Sam found the spot we had left off at.